Weekly Athletic Communications Report: March 4
Mar 04 | General
1. Rutgers mourns the loss of Fred Hill, who passed away Saturday aged 84. The Verona, NJ native totaled 1,089 collegiate wins, including 941 in 30 years leading the Scarlet Knights. Visitation will be Tuesday and the funeral mass is Wednesday | Tributes
2. Men's basketball Senior Night versus Penn State on Wednesday is sold out, marking the fifth sell-out of the season. Average attendance at the RAC through 16 games has improved 28.8% from last year.
3. Women's basketball's Stasha Carey has been named an All-Big Ten Second Team honoree and Arella Guirantes an All-Big Ten Honorable Mention by both the coaches and media. The Scarlet Knights take the No. 3 seed into the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals on Friday.
4. Men's track and field placed second at the 2019 IC4A Indoor Championships on Sunday at Boston University. RU recorded five event titles and a total of 11 Top 3 finishes, as fourteen Scarlet Knights were named All-East performers in the annual championship meet.
5. Softball strung together a four-game winning streak for the first time since 2016, including consecutive shutout victories for the first time since 2014 with blankings of Virginia and Robert Morris. Corah Price's nine strikeouts against RMU was the most in a game since 2016.
Men's Basketball (14-14, 7-11)
• Ron Harper Jr. was named the Big Ten Conference Freshman of the Week after scoring a career-high 27 points in the 86-72 victory at No. 22/21 Iowa on Saturday. The 14-point margin of victory was RU's greatest on the road against a ranked foe in program history.
• Works for its eighth Big Ten win when it welcomes Penn State on Wednesday (7 p.m., BTN) for Senior Night. Graduate student Shaquille Doorson will be honored in a pre-game ceremony. (RVision: Pikiell media availability)
• Concludes regular season Sunday (noon, BTN) at Indiana.
• Had 21 assists on 30 field goals to defeat No. 22/21 Iowa 86-72 Saturday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, the program's first win against a ranked foe in a true road game since defeating No. 13 Pittsburgh 77-64 on Jan. 26, 2008. (RVision: highlights)
• Episode 7 of The Rutgers Basketball Story aired, which included segments on academics and Randi Larson, Geo Baker, and the Minnesota victory.
Women's Basketball (21-8, 13-5)
• Opens Big Ten Tournament play on Friday in Indianapolis as the No. 3 seed in the quarterfinals against No. 14 Illinois, No. 11 Purdue or No. 6 Nebraska. Tipoff is approximately 8:45 p.m. on BTN. (Tournament Central)
• Went 3-0 last week to finish the Big Ten season at 13-5, the most conference victories since 2007-08. Arella Guirantes was named to the Big Ten Honor Roll.
• Captured its largest conference victory of the season in a 73-53 win over Wisconsin (Press Conference | Highlights)
• Concluded the home portion of the schedule at 13-2 with a 60-54 victory over Minnesota behind a career-high 25-point effort from Arella Guirantes (Press Conference | Highlights)
• Wrapped up the regular season in a 66-56 win at Ohio State, overcoming a 16-point first quarter deficit for the first win over the Buckeyes since joining the Big Ten (Press Conference | Highlights)
No. 18 Wrestling (12-6, 4-5)
• Competes at the 2019 Big Ten Championships on Saturday and Sunday in Minneapolis, with Anthony Ashnault earning the No. 1 seed at 149 pounds, and Nick Suriano carrying the No. 3 seed at 133 pounds. In total, eight Scarlet Knights earned seeds at the conference tournament.
• The NCAA released its qualifier allocations, updated Coaches Rankings and RPI, all tools used to determine qualifiers for the 2019 NCAA Championships.
Men's Track & Field
• Wrapped up the indoor season with a second-place finish at the IC4A Championships. RU posted 93 points, the most in program history at the meet, to finish slightly behind UConn's 108 points.
• Izaiah Brown claimed the 200-meter title with a school-record and meet-record time of 20.75 seconds.
• Tobi Tella (Long Jump), Malachi Davis (Triple Jump), and Taj Burgess (400m) each earned individual titles, while the 4x400m relay team claimed gold, as well.
Baseball (2-7)
• Dropped three games at Old Dominion (Recaps: 1 | 2 | 3)
• Tuesday's home game versus Iona has been postponed with the team back in action Friday at USC Upstate (4 p.m.).
Men's Golf
• Competes at the Colleton River Collegiate on Monday and Tuesday in Bluffton, South Carolina.
Football
• Opens spring practice with the first of 15 dates on Friday, culminating in the Scarlet-White spring game on April 13.
• Former Scarlet Knight defensive backs Blessuan Austin and Saquan Hampton are scheduled to participate in the NFL Combine this week in Indianapolis.
• Named Pete Rossomando (Offensive Line) and Kolby Smith (Running Backs) to the coaching staff.
No. 20 Men's Lacrosse (3-2)
• Hosts in-state rival Princeton on Saturday (1 p.m., BTN Plus)
• Defeated Fairfield, 8-4, on Saturday behind a career-high three goals from Owen Mead and 17 saves from Max Edelmann. The four goals allowed was the lowest surrendered by Rutgers since 2017, a span of 30 games.
• Edelmann leads the Big Ten and is second in the NCAA with a save percentage of 63%.
• Edelmann was named one of the candidates for the Senior CLASS Award for achievements both on and off the field.
• Adam Charalambides and Kieran Mullins were named to the Watch List for the prestigious Tewaaraton Award.
Softball (10-9)
• Travels to East Tennessee State this weekend for five games at the Buccaneer Classic against Tennessee Tech, Evansville, Siena and the hosts.
• Shut out UVA and Robert Morris, then defeated Quinnipiac and Robert Morris for a perfect 4-0 road trip through Virginia, Rutgers' first four-game winning streak since 2016.
Women's Track & Field
• Opens the outdoor season at the Yellow Jacket Invitational hosted by Georgia Tech on Mar. 15-16.
• Wrapped up the indoor season last weekend at the ECAC Indoor Championships placing fourth as a team.
• Rhonda Rogombe won the high jump title with a season best 1.70m (5' 7").
Gymnastics (4-14, 2-7)
• Returns to the RAC on Friday (7 p.m.) for a quad meet. It will be Senior Night, Girl Scouts Night and Prince, Princesses & Superheroes Night. The team will also compete Sunday at Kent State (1 p.m.)
• Scored a 194.625 to take third in a quad meet at New Hampshire. Jenna Rizkalla earned 9.900 on vault and floor to take first place in both events.
Women's Lacrosse (3-3, 0-0)
• Hosts Monmouth on Tuesday (6 p.m., BTN Plus) before it heads South to face reigning national champion James Madison on Saturday (noon) in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
• Goalkeeper Kam Halsall was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week, the third honor for the program in 2019.
• Suffered a defeat to Drexel last Saturday in Philadelphia
• Dropped a ranked loss to No. 12 UPenn last Wednesday in Piscataway
Women's Tennis (5-2)
• Travels for two road contests, starting with Towson on Friday (noon).
• Begins Big Ten play against the Maryland Terrapins on Sunday (noon).
• Defeated Buffalo, 5-2, on Friday to move to a 4-0 record at home.
Women's Golf
• Competes Monday and Tuesday at the River Landing Classic, hosted by UNV-Wilmington. RU joins six programs ranked among the Golfstat Top 75 in the 15-team field on the par-72, 6,026-yard River Course.
R Fund
• Announced the addition of four full-time staff members and two promotions.
